Heroin crisis hits home

Tuesday

Apr 15, 2014 at 10:00 AMApr 15, 2014 at 10:02 AM

There is a crisis in the United States, according to Matthew Fogal, Franklin County district attorney, and the local community is not being spared. Addiction, specifically heroin addiction, is on the rise.

Joshua Vaughn/The Record Herald

There is a crisis in the United States, according to Matthew Fogal, Franklin County district attorney, and the local community is not being spared. Addiction, specifically heroin addiction, is on the rise.

Fogal will take part in a town hall meeting this evening to discuss drug overdoses in the area.

The 7 p.m. meeting in the Capitol Theatre in Chambersburg is open to the public, and includes presentations by Gary Tennis, Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs; David Arnold, Chambersburg Police chief; Lieutenant Robert Johnson, Pennsylvania State Police; and Rchard Wynn, Franklin and Fulton County Drug and Alcohol Program Administrator.

Lives lost

On April 9, 2013, Robert Branson, 28, of Fairfield was found unresponsive near the parking lot of McDonald’s in Waynesboro. He would later die in the hospital due to an overdose, leaving behind a mother, father and two sisters.

“We are all so proud to have called him son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin, uncle and friend,” Kathleen Branson, Robert’s mother, said in an online memorial to her son that painted a picture of a gentle and caring young man whose life ended too soon.

Branson’s death comes alongside a list of heroin-related cases that include two men accused of dealing heroin in the Greencastle area, a Thurmont woman’s overdose in the Antrim Township Super 8 and federal charges against a group of people from the Shippensburg area accused of selling heroin that lead to the death of Kyle Golter, a 21-year-old Lurgan Township man, on Feb. 7, 2014.

Stories like Branson’s and Golter’s are becoming all too common. More people died from consequences of drug use in 2010 in Pennsylvania than motor vehicle accidents or from gunshots, according to a study done by the Office of President of the United States.

“There is a crisis in our country with addiction,” Fogal said.

Between 2009 and mid-2013 Franklin County had five heroin overdose related deaths, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Fogal added that drugs and alcohol drive 70 to 80 percent of the crime in Franklin County, whether that is arrests for drug use and sales or other crimes committed to feed a drug habit.

By the numbers

In 2013, the Franklin County Drug Task Force conducted 169 investigations and more than 20 percent were heroin related. Marijuana was the only drug to exceed heroin investigations, and only by a small margin.

Fogal, who leads the drug task force, said this is partly due to a concerted effort by the county to crack down on the drug, but also because heroin is becoming a larger problem in the area.

“The human toll heroin can take certainly puts it front and center,” Fogal said. “It literally kills people. It is killing citizens of Franklin County ... because it’s so destructive we want it out of here.”

A 2012-13 report by the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs said heroin use has risen nearly 4 percent during the past four years, making up almost a quarter of all those newly admitted for drug treatment. In 2010, heroin accounted for more admissions into substance abuse treatment than any other drug, according to the White House study. The attorney general’s office estimates about 40,000 heroin users live in Pennsylvania.

In 2013, investigations into drug crimes were heavily tilted toward Chambersburg, which saw 56 investigations, 19 of which involved heroin. Waynesboro and Greene Township were the next highest with 27 drug investigations each in 2013.

The drug task force took 44 pounds of marijuana, 65 grams of cocaine and 37 grams of heroin off local streets through seizures in 2013 and performed 121 drug buys totaling nearly $20,000.

At the state level, Pennsylvania State Police recently announced that in the first three months of 2014 nearly 38 pounds of heroin worth $8.5 million were seized.

A change in view

Franklin County has become known for being tough on drug crimes, Fogal said, but to truly deal with the root of the problem, the way drug crimes and addiction are treated has to change.

“We’ve just got to do things differently,” Fogal said, describing the current system of incarceration as warehousing addicts.

He explained that he sees the need to view drug users and suppliers differently. He hopes to stem the tide of addiction by providing more treatment for addicts and harsher punishment for suppliers.

While he said individuals need to be held accountable for their actions, Fogal believes a majority of Franklin County residents would agree addiction is a disease and needs to be dealt with that way.

“Sometimes it begins innocently enough,” Fogal said. “Maybe a kid gets prescribed a pain killer for knee surgery and gets addicted ... There’s a lot of pieces to this. Some of it is how we perceive addiction and addicts.”

“If they didn’t have that addiction, would they be criminals?” he asked.

Changes, however, have to come at the state or federal level.

Treatment for addiction is under-funded at the state level forcing some addicts out of treatment too soon, Fogal said. A 30-day inpatient stay at a treatment center averages around $30,000, according to choosehelp.com — a website dedicated to addiction rehabilitation — and may not be long enough to successfully combat heroin addiction.

“If you need nine months of inpatient treatment, my God, you should get nine months of inpatient treatment,” Fogal said.

For Fogal, the cost may be more in the short term, but hopefully money — and lives — can be saved by reducing the number of repeat offenders in the long term.

He said that families of drug addicts may not be victims in the traditional sense, but he feels they are still victims.

“There’s a lot of families out there who are suffering,” Fogal said. “I do this job to help the victims.”

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